


As Long as You're Still Here

by Kill_Your_Darlings, Spuffythevampireslayer



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-29
Updated: 2016-08-28
Packaged: 2018-08-11 17:25:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7901365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kill_Your_Darlings/pseuds/Kill_Your_Darlings, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spuffythevampireslayer/pseuds/Spuffythevampireslayer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The one where Jean and Marco still manage to fall in love, even with zombies</p>
            </blockquote>





	As Long as You're Still Here

Jean and Annie were sitting behind a trailer that had been pushed on it's side. They were close, but not so close that they had to touch, just enough to feel some warmth radiating from the other. Jean felt the cold metal from the trailer through his shirt and shivered as he finished the last of the energy bar that Annie had given him. She let out an irritated sigh and shuffled away from him. "What is it now?" Jean said not looking at her, mouth still full with food.   
"You eat like a horse. It's disgusting." Annie stood up and pulled her rucksack onto her back, "We need to move it'll be dark soon."  
"We just sat down." Jean whined.  
"Fine, be bait I don't care." Annie retorted with a shrug and turned on her heel to walk away from the boy.  
Jean watched her for a moment, attempting to call her bluff but he soon realised that she wouldn't wait for him. With a heavy sigh he mustered up the energy to stand and begin to follow after his companion, drawing his feet across the dirt in the process. "Y'know," he said, coming up on her right. "Rest is important too."  
"Surviving is important." She spat back at him. "I'm not gonna let anyone slow me down."  
"Is that what happened to your last group? They slowed you down?" When she didn't reply he kept going, "So you left them to be, what did you call me, 'bait'?" Jean faked a dramatic gasp, "Or maybe you even finished them off yourself-"  
Annie span around to face him, "You know nothing about me or my life, and I don't give a shit about you or becoming friends with you so unless you want to cut the crap now I really recommend you leave me alone before I make you leave."  
Jean locked eyes with her, accidentally committing myself to a stare-down which he ultimately lost at. "Fine." He grumbled, looking at the ground. He wanted to shout back at her but he knew better. Shouting wouldn't get him anywhere, especially not with her, plus it was far too dangerous for that. They walked in silence for a while longer along the beaten pathway. At every small sound Jean would be ready to run, but nothing came of the sounds. He was paranoid, on edge. Who wouldn't be in their situation? He drew a breath with the intention of calming himself down, soon he'd be able to rest.

• • •

Marco was almost finished wrapping the small piece of cloth around the boy's shin despite Bert and Reiner's constant protests and demands to keep moving. Marco kept his back turned to them and focused only on the small child and his sister, they couldn't have been older than 10 so he wanted to make sure they had some reassurance before the inevitable- his thoughts were cut off again by Reiner, "This is your last warning Bott. One more minute then you're alone."  
"No I'm not." Marco said calmly, taking a look at a wound on the little girl's forehead.  
Reiner scoffed, "Oh I forgot, you have your child bodyguards here."  
"I didn't mean them but now you mention it I guess you're right."  
"What? Who else is here?"  
"I mean that you won't leave me. You'd never admit it but you need me. I'm your best chance if either of you get hurt and you know that."  
Reiner looked at his tall friend Bertholdt before clicking his tongue in annoyance.   
Marco stood up, wiping his hands on his shirt. He turned and started walking. "Reiner, a word?" He requested.  
The blonde boy gave his friend a quizzical look before nodding, following Marco a few feet away. "Yeah?"  
Marco handed him a pistol loaded with a bullet. "I'm going to need you to shoot the girl." He said in a low voice, looking over Reiner's shoulder to see the two children with Bert.  
"What the fuck man?" Reiner said taking step back, Marco was quick to shush him.   
"We're going to have to shoot them at the same time, we can't afford to have two loud noises, plus one might run. We're going to have to be efficient." He said.  
"Marco. What the fuck." Reiner was still saying, looking from the gun in his hand back to the freckled boy.  
"They've been bitten," He paused to let it sink in, "So I need you to shoot the girl and I'll take the boy."  
"Marco... I don't think I can-"   
"Reiner for God's sake from the look of the boy we have under an hour we can't just let them go and it's kinder this way." He squeezed Reiner's arm reassuringly, "He'll turn on her first. Would you want to watch someone you love turn?" Marco followed Reiner's gaze as he turned around to look at Bert.  
He swallowed, "Ok. I'll do it."  
The shots triggered all of the birds from the surrounding trees to scatter. An eerie silence fell after the shots, but Marco did not pause to absorb it. He had already pocketed the guns and was ready to go.  
Reiner's hands were shaking slightly as he handed the gun over to his companion.  
"We have to move now." Marco said, looking around. "I think we have five bullets left." He said, trying to keep track of their supplies, it helped distract him.   
"Let's go." Reiner nodded, starting a brisk walk in the opposite direction of the corpses.   
"Where to?" Bert asked, following with Marco.  
"Just...away from here." Reiner responded with a grimace.  
"It had to be done Reiner." Marco tried to reassure him, but Reiner waved him off.  
"Don't talk. Just please keep walking."

• • •

"I leave for two minutes and this is what I get." Armin muttered under his breath as he watched Levi shouting at Mikasa who was trying to yank the already torn map out of his hands. Eren was shouting too but Armin couldn't work out what about or at who.  
"YOU'RE GOING TO GET US LOST AGAIN!" Mikasa yelled pulling at the map one final time. There was an audible ripping noise and Levi and Mikasa stumbled apart marginally each holding half of the map.   
"LOOK AT WHAT YOU DID!" They shouted at each other in unison, still ignoring Eren's wailing next to them.  
"STOP IT!" Armin shouted, and all three of them did so immediately, looking to the smaller boy. Armin never shouted unless it was serious.  
Armin drew a breath, pinching the bridge of his nose to quell the oncoming headache. "For the love of God do you want a whole hoard to find us?" He said.  
"Did you get more water?" Levi asked Armin, ignoring the previous question.  
Armin sighed, opening his backpack to toss Levi a bottle. "They were the last ones in the supermarket so we need to conserve them." He said. "Eren do you still have the compass?"  
"Yep!" Eren nodded, clutching the chain around his neck.   
"At least we can follow that." Armin muttered more to himself than anyone else. "Mikasa can you help me with a fire? We can stay here tonight, for a few hours at least."  
Levi laid his half of the map on the floor and Eren came to sit next to him. "We only really need this half." Levi smirked and lent against Eren, surprising him. "Relax brat I just want a rest." He said with his eyes closed. Eren grinned involuntarily as he watched Armin and Mikasa quickly and expertly build a small fire to keep them warm as they rested. Mikasa glanced over and saw Eren and Levi together.  
"I'll take first watch." She said flatly grabbing a rifle and the bottle of water.

• • •

"Can we please just stop here for Christ's sake I think my feet are bleeding." Jean complained as he was starting to lag behind Annie.  
"It's far too open here if we stay then surely-" She stopped mid sentence and a look of pure concentration dominated her features.  
"Wha-"  
"Shut the fuck up." Annie said quickly before Jean could even get the first word of his sentence past his lips. He obeyed her command.  
"The gas station is clear we can stay there for the night." The two looked at one another at the sound of the voice and paused a moment longer.  
"Thank God I'm exhausted." They heard another voice. Before Jean could question who it was Annie had already broken out into a full blown sprint in that direction.  
"OH MY GOD WAIT!" Jean shouted after, hitching up his rucksack further onto his shoulder as he began to run after his fiery companion.  
By the time he had caught up with her she was standing completely still. "Annie this is not funny I'm fucking exhauste-" Jean became aware of three other people standing opposite them; one blonde, one freckled and one notably taller. He noticed one of them was resting his hand on a gun in his pocket. "Uhh Annie? I think we should.." Jean trailed off as Annie dumped her rucksack and marched over to the blonde man opposite and slapped him across the face.  
To Jean's surprise the man laughed, rubbing the growing redness she had left on his cheek.  
"Good to see you too Annie." He said with a smirk.  
"You two are idiots." She muttered glancing at the tall man too, before her eyes fell on the third member of their party. "Who's this?"   
"Marco Bott." He said in response, standing and offering his hand out for her to shake. Annie looked from his hand back to his face.   
"I'm Annie." She introduced herself but did not take his hand.  
"Wait are these the guys you used to be with?" Jean interrupted, finally comprehending the situation.  
"Who's this?" Reiner mimicked Annie now, looking at Jean.  
Jean in response puffed out his chest to appear bigger and wearily he narrowed his eyes. "Jean Kirstein." He  responded with.  
"Huh." Reiner put his arm around Annie, "Let's get to the gas station and catch up shall we?"  
They started to head off in the other direction and Jean called out, "Annie you've left your bag here."  
Reiner barely looked over his shoulder as he replied, "Be a dear and get anything we've left will you John?"  
"It's Jean." He muttered under his breath as he bent over to gather Annie's scattered belongings. A pair of worn boots came into his view and Marco crouched down to help him.  
Jean gathered up as many belongings as he could and roughly shoved them into her bag.  
"Here." Marco said, handing him a pair of binoculars.   
Jean snatched them from his hand, putting them into the bag and rushed to zip it up. "I don't need your help." He muttered in an annoyed tone.   
"We could all use help in times like these." Marco said.  
Jean paused to look at him. "Well aren't you just a ray of sunshine." He said sarcastically, beginning to follow the other three. "I don't need this."   
Marco only smiled in response. "Ever heard of the expression safety in numbers? I'm glad we've got you guys."   
"It's only more people to worry about." Jean bit back.   
"How sweet you'd worry about strangers." Marco teased him.  
"Shut up." Jean managed to respond.  
They walked in silence for a while until Marco tried again, "So how long have you and Annie been together?" Jean didn't respond. "When I first joined Reiner and Bert all they did was look for her but eventually they gave up. I'm glad she's ok they really care about her."  
"Do you not understand 'shut up'." Jean spat. they had arrived at the gas station and Reiner had gotten the door to the shop open. There was a small diner inside and the group quickly gathered any food and drink that hadn't expired.   
"We're going to check this place out, are you two alright to start sorting out what we can eat now and what we should save?"  
"Yes-" Marco said smiling.  
"-No." Jean said over the top of him.  
"Glad to see we agree." Reiner motioned for Annie and Bert to follow him as they left the other two alone with the food.  
"Looks like we're stuck together." Marco broke the silence first.  
Jean stood from his seat and headed towards the kitchen doors. "I just want to sleep why me Lord." He said to himself. He grabbed a handful of packaging, beginning to look at the dates on the labels. Five minutes into his sorting Marco came though and silently got to work beside him.   
Every so often Marco would glance at Jean, his gaze continuously falling onto his calf.   
"When was the last time you changed those bandages?" He asked.  
Jean looked at the minor wound on his leg. "I haven't?" He said in response. "It's only a scrape."  
"It'll get infected." Marco said, standing he headed over to the sinks. "Aha." He exclaimed , picking out two dishcloths. He rinsed them under the tap for a few moments before ringing them out.   
Jean scooted back as Marco came up to him. "I'm fine." Jean insisted.  
"You're acting childish...I'm a doctor- well I'm going to be- I was going to be." He corrected himself, he shook away the thought. "Point is that wound will get infected unless you let me treat it. I promise it won't hurt."  
"I'm not worried about that." Jean hissed, stretching out his leg to prove his point. "Just...Ugh just hurry up." He said, giving Marco permission to dress his wound.  
"Sit on the counter with your leg up." Jean only raised an eyebrow but didn't move. "I'm not going to repeat myself come on."  
Reluctantly Jean positioned himself the way that Marco wanted and let him slowly unwrap his calf. Marco got to work cleaning and redressing the small wound. Jean watched for a while as Marco's brow furrowed and he stuck his tongue out slightly when he was trying to be gentle. Marco caught him staring and Jean quickly shut his eyes. He heard Marco chuckle under his breath as he finished dressing his calf. "There. All bandaged and clean." Jean inspected his handiwork and hopped off the counter.  
"Thanks." He said quietly.  
"My pleasure." Marco beamed at him and Jean felt himself blush. He hurriedly turned back to the food so Marco couldn't see his face.  
"Get it together Jean." He scolded himself,  
"Hm?"  
"Uh nothing just talking to myself."  
The two went back to sorting and not long after that Bert, Reiner and Annie returned.  
"We should rest for tonight. Bert reckons there's a safe zone, we just have to locate it. Early start tomorrow." Reiner said, poking his head into the kitchen.  
"Got it." Marco responded for the two of them.   
Once Reiner had left Jean stood up. He had had his eye on one of the cushioned booths since he arrived so began to make a beeline for it.  
"Goodnight Jean." He heard from behind him, causing him to pause at the doorway.  
"Yeah," Jean coughed twice, adjusting the pitch of his voice. "Night." Jean managed to get his booth as Reiner, Bert and Annie still wanted to be near each other. He had settled down when he heard a noise on the padded seats opposite him. He opened his eyes to see Marco perched across from him.   
"You don't mind do you?" Marco asked.  
"No whatever, doesn't affect me." He replied turning over. He could feel Marco's body heat from across the booth but this wasn't like feeling Annie's body heat; this time the heat rushed through him reddening his face again and causing his heart to beat faster. He shuffled into a more comfortable position and shut his eyes tightly trying to clear all thoughts from his head. 'I just need sleep'.


End file.
